Royal Reels: Gambling

Cartoons

SCOUT JAMBOREE, FRANKSTON VICTORIA, 1934-35

This illustrated cover specifically prepared for the Jamboree was postmarked with a faint AUST. JAMBOREE FRANKSTON/ 2.30 P 3 JA 35/ VIC. and it was addressed to Tom Fielding, Penguin, Tasmania. The front had a small printed AUSTRALIAN JAMBOREE FRANKSTON/ VICTORIA 1935, with a kangaroo and a boomerang in the centre, as well as a scout badge. It had a total postage of 1½d made up of the green 1d

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S. KING, P.H. ENGEL, H.S.A. McCULLAGH Ltd, LATE LANGE & THONEMAN

This advertising cover is not only intriguing, but it has also been unusually difficult to research, with the information coming in ‘dribs and drabs’ over the past 2 years. The behatted and bearded man catches one’s attention, while he contentedly smokes his pipe. His hat is adorned with ‘CORRECT THING’, and the rest of the inscription apparently reads ‘At Last, Petersburg Va. U.S.A’ (probably referring to the place of origin

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WILLIAM RADAM, GARDENER, QUACK, MEDICINE PEDDLER EXTRAORDINAIRE

This illustrated advertisement was something like I have never seen before and I had never heard of William Radam before! The advert pictures a man swinging a club at a skeleton, and this appears in similar guises with minor variants in other adverts. It promotes WM RADAM’ MICROBE KILLER with Headquarters for N.S.W. & Queensland at 319 George Street, Sydney, Australia. It had a pair of the lilac ‘View of Sydney’

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WILLIAM MORRIS HUGHES, LONGEST SERVING FEDERAL POLITICIAN

The final paragraph in the Australian Dictionary of Biography’s account of Billy Hughes really sums him up:  To some a great patriot, to others a renegade and mountebank.  He aroused extremes of admiration or hatred, but never indifference.  Abrasive and ruthless, he could also be charming and amusing.   Often mean, he could sometimes be very generous.  He would fly into violent rages, which would soon be forgotten.  A gift to

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